Release of Revised CDC Screening Guidelines for Hepatitis C Virus

HIVMA and IDSA sent a joint letter to Department of Health & Human Services, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, and the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality, uring the adoption of new draft hepatitis C screening guidelines that would recommend a one-time screening for all Americans born during the period 1945 to 1965.

We are writing to express our full support for the timely release of new age-based (“birth cohort”) screening guidelines for the Hepatitis C virus (“HCV”) by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (“CDC”) and the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (“AHRQ”). In particular, we urge the agencies to quickly adopt the new draft recommended guidelines that would recommend a one-time screening for all Americans born during the period 1945 to 1965, which is primarily comprised of the “baby boomer generation.” Existing risk-based screening has not effectively resulted in the screening of this patient population who account for over 85 percent of all Americans infected with chronic HCV.